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Things grow better with Coke
« on: 2004-11-06 12:21:55 » |
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[rhinoceros] Coca Cola has found several unintended uses in the past, e.g. as a contraceptive. Now this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1341454,00.html
Things grow better with Coke
Indian farmers have come up with what they think is the real thing to keep crops free of bugs. Instead of paying hefty fees to international chemical companies for patented pesticides, they are reportedly spraying their cotton and chilli fields with Coca-Cola.
In the past month there have been reports of hundreds of farmers turning to Coke in Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh states. But as word gets out that soft drinks may be bad for bugs and a lot cheaper than anything that Messrs Monsanto, Shell and Dow can offer, thousands of others are expected to switch.
Gotu Laxmaiah, a farmer from Ramakrishnapuram in Andra Pradesh, said he was delighted with his new cola spray, which he applied this year to several hectares of cotton. "I observed that the pests began to die after the soft drink was sprayed on my cotton," he told the Deccan Herald newspape
<snip>
One litre of highly concentrated Avant, Tracer and Nuvocron, three popular Indian pesticides, costs around 10,000 rupees (£120), but one-and-a-half litres of locally made Coca-Cola is 30 rupees. To spray an acre would be a mere 270 rupees.
It is clearly not Coke's legendary "secret" ingredient that is upsetting the bugs. The farmers also swear by Pepsi, Thums Up, and other local soft drinks. The main ingredients of all colas are water and sugar but some manufacturers add citric and phosphoric acids to give that extra bite to human taste buds.
Yesterday a leading Indian agriculture analyst, Devinder Sharma, said: "I think Coke has found its right use. Farmers have traditionally used sugary solutions to attract red ants to feed on insect larvae.
"I think the colas are also performing the same role."
<snip>
Yesterday a spokesman for Coca-Cola in Atlanta said: "We are aware of one isolated case where a farmer may have used a soft drink as part of his crop management routine.
"Soft drinks do not act in a similar way to pesticides when applied to the ground or crops. There is no scientific basis for this and the use of soft drinks for this purpose would be totally ineffective".
[rhinoceros] But there has also been made a different connection between Coca Cola and pesticides. The following is from last February:
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2004/1002.html
Parliamentary Committee Confirms Pesticides in Coca-Cola
NEW DELHI -- A parliamentary committee on Wednesday upheld findings by an environmental group that drinks made in India by PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. contained unacceptable amounts of pesticide residue. The panel also urged the Indian government to set new and stronger health standards for all beverages sold in the country.
The 15-member committee released its 180-page report in Parliament six months after the Center for Science and Environment, a private watchdog group based in New Delhi, asserted that 12 brands of soda made by the two American companies contained high levels of four extremely toxic pesticides: lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos. The group said these pesticides could damage the human nervous system.
The report said the center was "correct on the presence of pesticide residues in carbonated water in respect of three samples each of 12 brand products of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola."
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola responded by saying their beverages in India were safe and that they followed the same standards here as in the rest of the world.
<snip>
The report contradicted a statement made in August by Health Minister Sushma Swaraj, who told Parliament that independent tests conducted in government laboratories showed pesticide residues, but that they were not as high as the environmental group had claimed. Opposition lawmakers accused the minister of hurriedly absolving the soft drink manufacturers and demanded that a joint parliamentary committee be set up to investigate.
The report released Wednesday also criticized Indian regulations on pesticide residue and public safety, and called on the government to set stringent safety standards for food and beverages.
"The fact that pesticides were found in Pepsi and Coke bottles is beyond doubt," said Prithviraj Chavan, a member of the parliamentary committee. "But the question we need to ask is, did they break any Indian law? Are the Indian laws strong enough? The answer is no. Indian safety standards are very poor."
[rhinoceros] How it all started. This is an older one, from August 2003:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7909
India: Pepsi and Coca-Cola Deny Pesticide Claims
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, the US soft drinks companies, yesterday angrily denied allegations that their products manufactured in India contained toxins far above the norms permitted in the developed world.
India's Centre for Science and Environment, a non-governmental organisation, announced yesterday it had conducted tests that showed Pepsi's soft drink products had 36 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations and Coca-Cola's had 30 times the level.
The CSE said it found toxins in all 12 of the soft drinks it tested including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos - pesticides that can contribute over the long term to cancer and breakdown of the immune system. The centre said it had tested the same products in the US and found no such residues.
"These companies take advantage of the fact that India has no regulations governing the quality of water that goes into soft drinks," said Sunita Narain, a director of the CSE. "They say they have global standards. But this proves that is not the case."
At a joint press conference yesterday, the heads of Pepsi and Coca-Cola's India businesses - both wholly owned by their US parents - suggested the allegations were politically motivated.
They also said they used the same quality control standards to test their products in India and the rest of the world. Pepsi and Coca-Cola dominate the Indian soft drinks market, which is growing at between 12 and 14 per cent a year.
"There is a desire to create panic and a deliberate scare," said Sanjiv Gupta, president of Coca-Cola in India. "We challenge the methodology of these tests and ask for a peer review of the top five scientists in India. There can be no question of double-standards."
Yesterday's report comes six months after the CSE published research alleging that India's leading bottled water brands, including those owned by Pepsi and Coca-Cola, contained much higher levels of toxins than permitted in the EU. Both companies denied the allegations.
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